Plant Your Roots with Us!

At Prime Roots, we celebrate the culture of meat. We love eating it, but for the sake of the planet, know there has to be a better way. In a peak life stage of experimentation – their journey through UC Berkeley – founders Kim and Josh were well aware of our climate crisis, but felt completely powerless against the enormous industries that supported it. Eventually, they realized the one thing they could control: the meat they ate every day.

After determining what makes meat, meat (the familiar texture and rich umami), Kim and Josh found a foundation in koji. From that moment, they dreamed of walking into the grocery store and seeing an entire deli case filled with Koji Meats.

We are looking for a Process Engineer to join our team and work cross-functionally across our organization to produce world-class products. You will be responsible for process design & qualification, scale-up and change management validation, and reliability engineering. You bring product ideas to production execution, with accountability for statistical process control and adherence to product quality. You will collaborate externally with capital equipment manufacturers and internally with food science, operations, and product supply to ensure that Prime Roots’ possesses the capacity and capability to fulfil our product roadmap and demand growth. This role reports in person at our Berkeley HQ.

What you'll do:

• Own the design, documentation, qualification, and validation of the company’s making, packing, and fulfilment processes. Own the process of processes throughout Prime Roots (CRAD).
• Develop and implement an end-to-end quality assurance system, with quality control measurement tracking, statistical process controls, traceability, and release criteria through each step of the value chain from raw material to finished good warehousing.

• Lead continuous improvement efforts of production quality and throughput through implementation of reliability engineering and statistical process control strategies in the company’s making operations.
• Build, maintain, and own the company’s techno-economic model to quantify the TDC impact of each step of the making, packing, and fulfilment process, and draw quantified conclusions and recommendations about model input sensitivities and interactions.
• Collaborate with product management, food science, fermentation engineering, operations, and product supply to quantify the impact of each technical decision in the company’s strategic planning process.
• Characterize and optimize the functionality of novel fungi-based protein sources and assist the fermentation team in process optimization.
• Develop extensive market knowledge and a deep understanding of the latest relevant process technologies and capital equipment. Seek novel innovations and recommend innovative solutions from the outside to your internal business partners.

• General data analysis and experimental design for cross-functional projects working on design of experiments to assist other team members.

• B.S. or M.S. or PhD in Agricultural Engineering, Food Science, Biochemistry, Fermentation, or Chemical Engineering, or at least 3+ years of industry experience in a relevant bioprocessing or food science field.
• B.S. or M.S. or PhD in Industrial Engineering, Operations Engineering, Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, or at least 3+ years of industry experience in manufacturing / quality / reliability engineering.

• Strong left-brain analytical thinking and scientific intuition, with a comfort for managing non-linear stochastic systems. Fluency with engineering optimization software packages (JMP, R / R-plot, NumPy, SciPy)
• Expertise in engineering statistics, design of experiments (DoE), risk engineering, quality management systems, control charting, and process flow sensitivity analysis.
• Capabilities with basic machine learning techniques (PCA, Clustering, regressions)
• The ability to build predictive models for processes (Given measurements predict process outcome for a large set of possible process parameters and then select optimal process parameters to achieve desired outcome)
• Familiar with industrial scale fermentation and/or food manufacturing processes.

• Experience with analytical chemistry and/or consumer sensory science is a plus.
• Ability to collaborate effectively within a cross-functional technical environment. Strong communication skills.
• Understanding of best-in-class systems, with an agile and flexible mindset
• Demonstrated experience embracing ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity in a rapid growth startup environment.
• Technically savvy, adept at navigating and implementing data systems

• Opportunity to work in a fast-growing innovative food startup.
• Competitive compensation and equity.
• Excellent growth and advancement opportunities.
• Collaborative working environment.

• Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance.
• FSA, HSA, and Commuter Benefits Accounts.
• 401k.

Prime Roots is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity and inclusiveness. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.